DENTISTS!

I didn't blog about it, but just before Chris and Sarah came to visit, I found a lump on my gum. I went to the dentist and she said it was an abcess and gave me three days antibiotics. No one could understand why I wasn't in any pain, other than being aware it was there. I was told some horrific tales about abcesses, and huge swollen faces with agonising pain, so was a bit apprehensive waiting for the pain to hit! The dentist has referred me to the dental hospital, to either have the crown and tooth removed, or drill into the root to drain the infection, which ever they decide. She said I will not hear from them for about three months!!

By yesterday, the abcess was still there so I went back to the dentist for some more antibiotics. She was about to prescribe some until I told her that I wasn't really in any pain with it. 'If you have no pain then I won't give you any more antibiotics' she said. She then proceeded to squeeze it and mess around with it in general, telling me I had to do the same to get the infection out. I also have to hold warm water in my mouth to encourage it to burst:0(

I have been quite successful with the squeezing, but I need a bit of help. Do you think it would be okay to steralize a needle and give it a helping hand? After all, dentist do lance them sometimes I am told.

Fancy having to carry on like this for three more months. And supposing I had been in agony like most people are? It is right above to my front tooth, and really feels annoying. I just hope it doesn't suddenly come to life and cause my face to swell up like a football like my mother-in-laws did:0( She was in absolute agony.

PROBLEMS

Can you please use this space for comments? I have corrected the problem I had:0)

Geocaching

Yesterday we decided to take Livvie on a 'treasure hunt'. It is called Geocaching. There is a site dedicated to this and people all over the world join in!

http://www.geocaching.com/

You have to have a GPS, and you download coordinates into your GPS. (The coordinates will guide you very close to the where the 'treasure' is hidden), then you scrabble about looking for it! It involves a walk which could be of any length, so you get to see some lovely countryside as well.

Anyway, Livvie was looking forward to it because we had done one the day before and failed to find it:0( We think some children must have come across it by accident, and trashed it.

We set off and soon found ourselves in Green Moor, Wortley. It took us a little time to find the footpath we were to use, and we had a lovely walk following it. The clues called for another footpath to be picked up at a certain point, and we took what we thought was the correct one. Fortunately for us it was the wrong one, and meant that we had an extra walk all along the embankment of the River Don. It was beautiful, but I couldn't go all the way with Livvie and Len because it became very slopey and slippery due to the recent flooding of the river Don. Here are a couple of photos taken on that walk.

They left me alone for probably 15 minutes at the most, but surprisingly I felt very vunerable standing in the middle of the woods alone, unable to move in any direction in case I slipped and fell into the river! It was deathly quiet and I kept imagining all sorts of scenarios!

However, back they came and we retraced our footsteps to eventually find the correct path. The scenery all the while was lovely. We live in a very beautiful county. The final part of the walk was up a steep stoney hill. We sent Livvie ahead to have a good look for the treasure. The final clue was 'under some flat stones by a stone gatepost'. She was rummaging around behind a dry stone wall when she lifted a stone and spied the treasure box. This is a photo of it before we removed it. Then one of the box when she opened it.

This is a picture of the hill we had to walk up, plus a photo of the walking boots that I gave to Livvie. She was so thrilled with them that she insisted I took a picture of them:0)

Anyway....Livvie exitedly opened up the cache and began to rummage through it. The idea is that you take something out of the box and then put something in to replace it. Livvie took a funky ruler, which I will show you, and a compass. She replaced them with a very nice keyring torch and a small ball. We filled in the log book and carefully hid the cache again. If there is anybody around at all, (non geocachers are calle muggles) then we don't go near the cache. We must make sure that we are completely alone before uncovering or replacing a cache, because unfortunately there are some rotten people about who just love to ruin everything. The first picture is of Livvie spoils, and the others are the workings of her 'funky' ruler! Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon, and we are already lining up some more caches to do.

Just one more thing that I thought I would tell you, which has nothing to do with the caches or walking!

On the first Saturday Chris and Sarah were here, they had a wedding to go to and so I was baby sitting. Everything was going fine, and the boys were very happy. I put Jo up in his cot for his afternoon nap, and as everything went quiet immediately, I was feeling very pleased with myself. About 30 minutes later Jo started screaming, so I went upstairs to see what was wrong. You should have seen the sight that greeted me! Jo was standing in his cot with lots of red and black all over his face, clothes and duvet. I thought, in the semi darkness, (the curtains were of course drawn) that he was covered in fresh and dried blood! I could see nothing at all wrong anywhere else. I opened the curtains in panic to see where he was bleeding from, and thinking that Chris and Sarah would never trust me again, when I realised he was covered all over in lipstick, mascara and foundation, not to mention other creams. The crafty little boy had opened a drawer where I keep spare make up and had undone and used everything, before carefully closing the drawer again! This is a photo of the drawer. I was in such a panic initially, that I didn't think to take a photo of him. I wish I had!! I had a mammoth cleaning up job, and the lipstick and mascara would only come off by using baby oil, gently and persistently rubbing it into his face! All the photos will enlarge with a click.

Fish Hollandaise recipe

For those of you who wanted the Fish Hollandaise recipe, here it is:

INGREDIENTS

8 ozs fesh or frozen broccolli florets
Salt
4 cooked cod (or other fish) fillets (simmer with salt, pepper and bay leaf)
10oz can condensed mushroom soup
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons DRY white wine
4 tablespoons thick mayonnaise
Freshly ground black pepper
1.5 ozs fresh breadcrumbs
1.5 ozs mature cheddar, grated (I use a little more breadcrumbs and cheese than the recipe calls for) .

METHOD

Heat oven Gas mark 7/220C/425F

Cook broccolli in a pan of boiling water for 2-3 minutes, drain and arrange in a greased, shallow ovenproof dish. Arrange the cooked fish over the broccolli.
Combine the soup, lemon juice, wine and mayonnaise and season well with salt and pepper. Pour evenly over the fish.

Mix the breadcrumbs with the cheese and sprinkle evenly over the surface of the prepared dish. Cook towards the top of a pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes until bubbling and golden brown.

I served this with steamed potatoes, peas and carrots.

I am sure if you like fish and you like cheese, you will enjoy this lovely dish, and it is really very quick to prepare and cook.

On my own for two hours!

Chris and Sarah moved out today, to continue their holiday in the Lake District. A couple of hours later Livvie moved in to escape her house for the weekend! Sindie and Gary are clearing out their shed, and there are likely to be some huge spiders marching about. She asked me this evening if she could sleep tomorrow as well, so that she wouldn't be near them:0)I don't know if I will have any time to do a blog before Chris and Sarah return on Friday, but I will try. Unfortunately, Chris took all the photos because I kept leaving my camera behind, so we will have to wait until he is back home again before he can send them to me via the computer:0(I cooked some really lovely vegetarian meals this past week, and one of them was Fish Hollandaise. It was so quick and easy, and tasted divine! If anyone is looking for a really nice fish recipe, I will put it on my blog:0)

My Visitors

As you probably know, I have had Emily staying with me for a few days while Sindie is on holiday. (Emily wouldn't go away in a camper van for all the money in China!). Well, she has gone to stay with her friend for the night after going to the cinema together, and she will be moving in with Babs and Mo (Beetle blogger) for a few days until her mum returns.

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I have been busy stripping and making up beds for my next lot of visitors who arrive tomorrow evening. My son Chris, daughter in law Sarah, and grandchildren Aaron and Jo are coming for 8 or 9 days, so we are really looking forward to it. I will have all my spare bedrooms in use, and have made up a bed in my computer room for one of the boys. Just because I have nothing else to show you, I have shown you the result of all my hard work today:0)

The washing machine has also been going non stop, getting the bedding and towels washed that Emily left behind.

*****

My son Chris says that these blogs are just another way us girls have found to natter to one another! I think he is right, but I am enjoying it, so there!

*****

I will be taking plenty of photographs while they are here of course, and hope to have a super duper blog at the end of their stay. Until then, I won't be publishing any more blogs, naturally. But I will be popping in from time to time to see what you have written:0)

My Lemon Tree

I just thought I would show you how my lemon tree is getting on. The first picture is the one I put on my blog a few weeks ago, and the second one is a photo I have just taken. If you look carefully, you will see the first one was only really covering the tips of Lennies fingers. The second one is considerably larger. I have also noticed that it is flowering again!! I am not sure now if it is a lemon tree or a lime tree!!